Chips in Space

The Next Frontier of AI Infrastructure

There’s a limited amount of room here on Earth, and most of it is covered by water. And though Microsoft has shown running data centers under the waves is possible, tech giants have set their gaze on the stars as the home of global internet and expanded AI efforts. Whether it’s to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink or to satisfy the ever-growing demand for computing power that has seen a data center building boom, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon are all developing programs to put computing satellites into orbit in the decade ahead.

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Catch Some Rays

“In the future, space may be the best place to scale AI compute,” wrote Travis Beals, Google’s senior director for Paradigms of Intelligence.

So space is where Google is headed with Project Suncatcher, an initiative to launch orbiting data centers above our heads. Deployed correctly, solar panels in orbit can produce eight times more electricity than the same units on Earth.

The plan is to put solar-powered satellites in sun-synchronous low-Earth orbit so they are receiving sunlight almost at all times.

“Project Suncatcher is part of Google’s long tradition of taking on moonshots that tackle tough scientific and engineering problems,” Beals wrote, noting that the company was a pioneer in quantum computing and autonomous vehicles before people thought them practical endeavors.

In Project Suncatcher, Google takes on another challenge. To take advantage of that power increase, the satellites will need to be spaced closely together, no more than a kilometer apart. That’s closer together than the satellites in any current operation.

Another issue is sourcing materials. Given the higher radiation in space and frigid temperatures, satellites tend to use specially designed materials to stand up to the elements. That’s obviously more expensive than hardware used on Earth. Google is banking on its energy-efficient TPUs lasting at least five years in orbit, testing them with a 67MeV proton beam.

With a lift from Planet Labs, Google plans to launch two prototypes in 2027 to move “beyond data collection and edge compute, toward complex, high-performance computation in space,” Planet Labs wrote. Another obstacle is the price of launching satellites, so Google anticipates a fuller deployment of Project Suncatcher in the mid-2030s, when it anticipates prices to come down.

Blue Heaven

With space set to get a lot busier in the next few years with the Artemis missions, Microsoft is looking to provide enhanced cloud computing for the space community – and to hard-to-reach places on Earth.

“With Azure Space we have ambition to make space connectivity and compute increasingly attainable across industries including agriculture, energy, telecommunications, and government,” then-Microsoft corporate vice president for mission engineering Tom Keane wrote in a 2020 blog post announcing Azure Space.

Since then, the program has debuted the Azure Orbital Cloud Access Preview to bring Microsoft’s cloud worldwide and made the Azure Orbital Ground Station widely available. In partnership with multi-orbit satellite company SES, Microsoft launched a Satellite Communications Virtualization Program that “will create the world’s first fully virtualized satellite communications ground network by focusing on software-defined hubs, customer edge terminals, new virtual network functions, edge cloud applications, and more,” Microsoft Azure EVP Jason Zander wrote.

The aim is to align cloud and satellite infrastructures and bring 5G to commercial satellite networks. That could make connectivity as reliable in space as it is on Earth, with speeds to match.

“They forge what we aspire to enable — a future for the cloud where our customers combine the power of Azure with the possibilities of space,” Zander wrote.

Leo Rising

In an attempt to compete with Starlink, which has more than 8,000 satellites in orbit with orders for another 15,000, Amazon Leo low-Earth orbit network plans “to deploy service to most countries around the globe, including hard to reach locations.”

Leo, originally known as Project Kuiper, has sent about 150 satellites into orbit so far with plans for a constellation of more than 3,000. Amazon plans to begin widespread service in 2026 with three tiers available: 100 Mbps, 400 Mbps, and 1 Gbps. The top tier would be more than three times faster than Starlink’s top offering.

“Cost, complexity, and geography can make it difficult to install traditional, ground-based fiber and wireless connectivity solutions in these areas,” Amazon’s Thomas Kohnstamm wrote. “Satellite broadband can fill many of those coverage gaps, but developing and deploying satellite technology requires significant innovation and investment.”

Amazon is making that investment, with 83 planned launches in the coming years. There’s a lot of catching up to do to match Starlink’s output, but Amazon says its Kirkland., Wash., facility can produce up to five satellites per day. That could power a lot of broadband.